The Mornington Peninsula: lush and lovely

*This piece is written as a destination review for The Australian Travel Blog (http://blog.expedia.com.au/). The reviews are written by international travel bloggers.


There’s no doubt that Victoria’s hinterland boasts some of the loveliest and most diverse country in Australia. The landscape is full of sweeping vineyards, rugged mountains, rainforests, beaches and blue seas dotted with frolicking whales. The best news is that the Mornington Peninsula is just a one-hour drive from Melbourne’s CBD, so you can get there and back in a day and still experience some of the Peninsula’s fun (and delicious) activities.


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The Mornington Peninsula produces some of Australia’s finest wines, specialty beers and first-class gourmet food. The vineyards and breweries are run by friendly locals who will have a chat while guiding you through a tasting of their products. Most of the locations don’t charge for tastings and the owners will happily open an $80 bottle of award-winning Chardonnay just for you. Picturesque vineyards are often accompanied by Chef’s Hat restaurants (rated by The Age Good Food Guide) that base menus around produce grown in their own back gardens. All the vineyards are breathtakingly beautiful; here are some particularly eye-catching venues:

Photo by Mornington Peninsula Tourism

Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove

The 35 acres at Montalto source premium cool climate wines and luscious olive products. Montalto’s crisp Chef’s Hat rated restaurant is acknowledged as the Peninsula’s best, while the adjoining piazza offers simple, tasty food for a reasonable price. You can explore the extensive kitchen garden and look around their permanent sculpture collection.

Photo by Mornington Peninsula Tourism

Red Hill Brewery

The owners of this unique micro-brewery cultivate their own organic hops field, all set in beautiful, rustic bushland. The brewery is open for public viewing and the bar is staffed by a charming expert who will get your taste buds tingling with a range of delicious hand-crafted ales. Watch out for their seasonal ale – this year was a superb “Temptation” brew with an appropriately wicked bite.

Photo by Steph Teh

Red Hill Estate

This multi-award winning estate has unrivalled views over Western Port Bay and Phillip Island. Max’s restaurant is the pioneer of winery restaurants on the Mornington Peninsula and the cellar door offers a sensational range of wines (tasting by appointment only). There is even luxury cottage accommodation for those who can’t bear to leave the spectacular venue.

The food and wine of the Mornington Peninsula can best be enjoyed by signing on with a guided tour. Wallaces’ Mornington Peninsula Winery Tours is run by local experts who will organise your trip and point out all the best places to visit. With someone else doing the driving, it will leave you free to indulge in that fine Shiraz, delectable Riesling or refreshing Pinot Grigio . . .

The Mornington Peninsula is home to a multitude of other activities – provided you don’t get too enthusiastic about the wines at the vineyards. For the adventurous, the Peninsula offers scuba-diving, surfing and deep-sea fishing, walking and bike tours. For those wanting a more relaxing holiday, there are horseback tours of the wineries and luxury cruises along the Peninsula’s coast. You can find all the information you need at Mornington Peninsula Tourism or the Visitor Information Centre at 359B Point Nepean Rd, Dromana VIC.

You can also find more fun things to do on the Mornington Peninsula and traveller reviews on Trip Advisor.


Filed under: Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Wineries, Food

DJ Qbert and MC Supernatural at The Espy, Melbourne 02/11/09

*This piece is written for the “Concerts” category of an Australian music blog – TheMusicBlog.com.au. TheMusicBlog is a collaborative project that can be joined by anyone with an interest in the Australian music scene.

Image: Resident Advisor

The undisputed kings of elemental hip-hop, DJ Qbert and MC Supernatural, were in full flow at The Esplanade Hotel last Monday night. Qbert, the world’s #1 turntabalist and two time US freestyle champion Supernatural ripped out a battle set never before seen in Australia as part of the Low-Fi Tour (also featuring Nas and Jurassic 5 front man, Chali 2na).

Qbert pioneered many of the popular scratching techniques used today and has appeared in countless tutorials for aspiring DJs. After three consecutive wins at the DMC world championships (1992–95) in team battles with Mix Master Mike, the organisers asked Qbert not to compete again in the hope of giving other DJs a chance at the title. Supernatural is equally legendary in the realm of freestyle emcee battles. He’s even in the Guinness World Records for the longest freestyle – over ten hours.

DJ M-Phazes kicked off the night with a few well-chosen hip-hop favourites, while Akil (J-5) followed with a set of gangsta beats from his upcoming album Sound Check and snippets of J-5 classics like “Freedom” and “I Am Somebody”. The absence of the main support acts The Funkoars, DJ Dexter (The Avalanches) and DJ Perplex was slightly puzzling, but not surprising – hip-hop artists are notoriously shocking at turning up for gigs.

Qbert needed no introduction as he appeared to ear-splitting whistles. He was characteristically calm as he politely asked the crowd if it would be “ok” for him to show off some scratching. The atmosphere was intense, with mad cheering interspersed with periods of utter silence as everyone fixated on Qbert’s fingers.

Supernatural joined Qbert for a few mildly disappointing R n B tunes sung slightly off-pitch. Singing obviously isn’t Supernatural’s forte, so when he opened his mouth to freestyle something wild poured out. People up-front handed him things from their pockets: lighters, bottles, wallets, phones, watches. Whatever they gave him, Supernatural spat a clever line or two before moving rapidly onto the next item. He kept this up for a good half hour, with Qbert grinning in the background. It was an amazing feat to witness live; you can see Supernatural doing a similar rap at the 2008 Magic Convention:



After Supernatural retired, Qbert started off his second suite with 1970s electronic beats, followed by an excellent break beat set. Even though Qbert had the audience rapt, he asked if it would be alright for him to fill in when the next DJ didn’t show up. It was heart-warming to hear the world’s best turntabalist as considerate and shy as if he were playing his first concert.

This great gig was made fantastic by humble performers who obviously loved what they were doing. It was impossible to be an unsatisfied hip-hop fan this night; these two artists are definitely worth seeing again. You can check out Qbert on his MySpace page or listen to some crazy freestyling on Supernatural’s.

The Espy Hotel has been putting on a fantastic show for Melbourne hip-hop enthusiasts – this year they’ve hosted big acts like the Gza and Ghostface Killah (Wu-Tang), Chali 2na, Akil and Labjacd. They’re even planning an ambitious Method Man and Redman concert in January 2010.

Tags: 2009, live, live music, hip-hop, review

Technobafflement

I've just been watching Hackers, the one and only cult movie for inspiring young technogeeks to hack bank mainframes in the mid 1990s (yeah, I said mainframe). Watching this movie just tickles me these days, although I thought it was SO COOL when I was in grade five.
It's a far cry from what we're capable of 14 years later. Have a look at Microsoft's Surface computer. It's just like using your computer, only it's touchscreen. And a coffee table. And a painting easel. And I thought Eee Pcs were cool.

I'm still scared of downloading torrents, my gran won't click on links or open email attachments. She's terrified of untraceable Internet companies charging her for opening email files. I'm scared of iinet charging me for episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

How are we supposed to keep up with the technology that's thrown at us? Every day I find out about some new gadget and think I'm on top of things - no wait, that's been out for three years already. I've been trying to find somewhere I can go to read the biz on what's happening out there. The best sites I can find are Wired, TechRepublic and Technology Review.

There sheer amount of information on the Internet makes me dizzy. I'm wondering if I can split my brain so one half can spend all its time looking at blogs and reading the news and the other half can do uni assignments and work. If anyone knows about a gadget that can do this already...

Famous Nerds

The nerd was always an enigmatic organism. A being that lurked in the bedroom shadows of social acceptability, hiding his spotty face from the light with soft white fingers. To be a nerd was to condemn oneself to a life of unattractive stereotypes and ridicule. It meant hovering at the bottom of the abyss of cool and banishment from social nirvana. It heralded exile from the Olympus of golden teenage rock and jock gods. But the nerd ignored the hasty backpedaling of mainstream society - he was oblivious to the subconscious cultural fear that the highly intelligent had the ability to dominate. Now, that fear has come alive. We live in a world where geeks crawl through the streets in expensive black cars and suave dark suits. We are stranded in an alternate reality where polished loafers* reflect the unsuspecting faces of the masses. In our age of technology, the nerd is rubbing pale hands together over the fates of economy, ecology, technology and ultimately, the future.

Earlier I was blogging about sexy young nerds. Well, here are some young-ish, not very sexy, nerds, my subjective list of the top 5 nerds that control your life, now that your life is THE INTERNET.**

Larry Page & Sergey Brin
Profile: Co-founders of Google. Presidents of Products and Technology of Google.
Facts: Larry’s first computer was an Exidy Sorcerer. The Sorcerer boasted 2 MHz processor speed and 8K RAM. That's as fast as an old calculator. Sergey liked puzzles when he was a kid.
Ages: 36
Nerd Rating: *****
Product Addiction Rating: *****

Evan Williams
Profile: Founder of Twitter, Pyra Labs, Blogspot, Blogger.
Fact: Evan likes vegetables.
Age: 37
Nerd Rating: ****
Product Addiction Rating: ***


Tom Anderson
Profile: Co-founder of Myspace. Public relations invention. Not really Tom Anderson since News Corp took over his Myspace profile.
Fact: Tom was raided by the FBI for hacking into a bank in 1985.
Age: 30-something. Not as young as he'd like.
Nerd Rating: **
Product Addiction Rating: ****

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen & Jawed Karim
Profile: Co-founders of YouTube
Fact: The idea for YouTube was created at a dinner party.
Ages: 33, 31, 30
Nerd Rating: **
Product Addiction Rating: *****

Jimmy Wales
Profile: Co-founder of Wikipedia
Fact: Jimmy lives in a 'grandma' house.
Age: 43
Nerd Rating: ****
Product Addication Rating: *****

*Not all nerds wear loafers
**May not be entirely true

Ode to E-Blogger

Why, E-Blogger, must you keep changing into Georgia,
from my original Arial?

Why, E-Blooger, must you make me look like,
I can't make up my mind?

Why, E-Blogger, must I republish things,
ten times?

Why, E-Blogger, I know you're free,
what could I expect?

Why, E-Blogger, I do still like you better
than WordPress.

Photography and the Ethics of Privacy

Talking about legal and ethical considerations has got me thinking about one of my pet issues - when does photography stop being an ethics-free activity and start impinging on people's privacy?

The Australian Journalists Association (AJA) code of ethics covers privacy pretty extensively - suggesting that journalists respect people's private grief, only use accurate material, and use fair and honest means to obtain pictures. The National Press Photographers Asssociation echoes the same ethics and the Society of Professional Journalists advises journalists should avoid "pandering to lurid curiosity".

The Encyclopedia Brittanica Online defines privacy as a right not to be emotionally disturbed or be subjected to tensions from baring intimate life and affairs to public view. Obviously the papparazzi and sensational photojournalists ignore the codes of ethics and overstep people's right to privacy all the time: taking photos of celebrities in their homes, nipple slips, ladies without their makeup on doing shopping etc. etc. They also love to take embarssing photos and videos of politicians doing gross things in session:

Mmmm...yummy...
There's always the argument that by being a public figure, you've given up the right to any personal privacy. But c'mon, does that mean it's ok for journalists to take pictures of women exiting cars without their underwear on?
(I won't show you the original photos, as they lack the artistically placed stars)

Celebrities and politicians are also a different kettle of fish than your average daily Joe. It's hard to justify taking pics like this of regular ladies hoo-has - then you'd be a perv. Taking photos in times of war is another ethically contentious issue. Is it ok to take a picture of a woman tearing off her clothes in grief over a son who's been caught in the crossfire? Children with their legs blown off, or vultures creeping up on helpless, supine babies?

There's been a few shakeups over the past few years about police and authority figures taking cameras from citizens and deleting photos. There was the Nick Holmes incident where police deleted films off his Blackberry. There were also a number of cases in 2008 where Surf Lifesavers seized cameras and handed them over to police for investigation. Do police and other authorities have the legal power to do this? No, they don't. Arguably, Surf Lifesavers are just using their good taste and morals to get rid of child pornography and unsavoury photos of topless women, but the police obviously have darker incentives. It's also perfectly legal (barring naked children) for people to take a photo anywhere they like in public. Kenneth Kobre says you are even allowed to take photos of people who are on private property, as long as they can be seen by the naked eye from wherever youare standing on public property.

Privacy laws are a double-edged sword at the moment: current Australian law dictates there are no laws against journalists overstepping boundaries into a subject's right to privacy; coincidentally, there are no laws to protect journalists against court suites filed against actions regarding invasion of privacy. But change is coming - in 2007 privacy law reviews from the Australian Press Council suggested a "public interest" defence for journalists. Bingo. It'd be pretty hard to justify photos of pantyless ladies as being in the public interest. Now to see how effective such a defence would be...it turned out to be so useful in defamation law...

Photograph privacy is a complicated issue. I guess journalists (professional and citizen!) should stick by their codes of professional and moral ethics and ask themselves the same question Machiavelli did: does the end result really justify the means?

Sci-Fi Acting is Dreadful: Make Everything Animation

(Written for the rant column of io9: science fiction website)

One of the frustrating things about science fiction films and television shows is that they’re often accompanied by bad acting. You would think that someone who’s gone to enough trouble to creating aliens, new world, galaxies, (if they’re not dead and they’re wives haven’t taken to producing instead) can take the time to find decent actors to fill the important roles.

This is likely impossible, as the over-cooked performances of Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman (Star Wars), and the starry-eyed Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson (Harry Potter) can attest. There’s a simple solution: make everything into animation. It worked for the Clone Wars, it worked for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and it can work for all science fiction given a bad rep because of shoddy actors.

This isn’t saying that all sci-fi acting is crap; I could drool on about Ewan McGregor, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner’s unacknowledged brilliance playing Data. It’s the big-budget movies that tend to draw in the bad with the good: we saw it in Star Wars I – III with a sulky representation of Anakin Skywalker by Christensen and a pouting Portman as the regal, sharp-shooting Padmé Amidala. George Lucas would have been much happier with Anakin and Padmé in the Clone Wars—there, at least you can expect stiff-lipped facial expressions and wooden love scenes.



While Daniel Radcliffe managed to pull of a wide-eyed Potter and Emma Watson a particularly haughty Hermione, it’s hard to think these two actors were the cream of UK’s young aspiring. With one movie to go, the Potter rep has already been concreted: yep, the movies weren’t as good as the books. An animated Potter series could turn this on-screen stagnancy around. Magic and adventure has always had a fantastic animated screen presence, think 1977 The Hobbit or the 1967 Disney take on King Arthur, The Sword in the Stone. Here’s to hoping the planned 2011 release of a filmed Hobbit, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo Del Toro, can live up to the animated 70s classic.

In spite of being declared anathema by trekkies worldwide, I’ll put it out there that the acting in Star Trek: The Original Series wasn’t particularly first-rate either. Will Shatner’s cowboy cock-ups and beetling brows had to be offset with the warmly chaotic Jackson DeForest Kelley and a smattering of great acting from Leonard Nemoy. Star Trek: TOS and the movies starring original cast could have been bypassed with an animated Star Trek right from the beginning; that would take care of those pesky low-budget sliding doors and shaky cameras. Star Trek: TAS offered the writers far greater creativity and opportunities than the original live-action series. You can imagine that getting an animated humpback whale on board the Enterprise could be more convincing than it appeared in The Voyage Home.



Animated series can be just as successful in creating a sci-fi multiverse as live films—they’re blessedly free from bad acting and give a badass panache to phasers and lightsabers. There are so many possibilities still waiting for the animate world: just imagine an animated Picard rolling his R’s and sipping Earl Grey, or a lithely caricature of Sarah Michelle Gellar plunging stakes into dusky vampires.